This Saturday June 13th, Azjamon World View hits the road once again. The event is the Juneteenth Day celebration to be held at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
6:00pm to 10:00pm
South Mountain Community College
Phoenix, Arizona
Though the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863, it had minimal immediate effect on most slaves’ day-to-day lives, particularly in Texas, which was almost entirely under Confederate control. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take possession of the state and enforce the emancipation of its slaves. Legend has it while standing on the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa, Granger read the contents of “General Order No. 3”:
“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”
That day has since become known as Juneteenth, a name derived from a portmanteau of the words June and nineteenth.
Locally, the Valley of the Sun Juneteenth organization (VOSJuneteenth) has put together a great website and what will likely be a great celebration.
